death to noise
Nov 2, 2004 at 4:24 PM Post #18 of 37
should consider one of those passively cooled VIA EPIA systems.. works fine if you're not gonna do gaming - just casual surfing & chat + listening to music.
 
Nov 2, 2004 at 5:08 PM Post #19 of 37
Quote:

Originally Posted by Zurg
I am currently putting together a PC system. It will be a general purpose system but I intend to listen to music through it while I am using it.

7. (2)Two, Samsung Spinpoint 160GB hard drives. These are currently rated as the quietest drives on the market, from the reviews I've read. I will be hooking these up in a raid 0 configuration for maximum performance. Since I am fairly religious about backing stuff to DVDs, CDs, and/or external USB hard drives, I am unconcerned about the reliability risks posed by raid 0.
If anyone has any comments or suggestions about how to further quiet this system, I would appreciate your input.

-Z


I agree with you with the choice of the Samsung 3.5" 160 Gb hard drives with 8 mb of cache, for silence/performance.

There are more silent drives if you dont care about perfomance.
The notebooks hard drives 2,5" 4.200 rpm are more silent/less power consumant yet, but their performance is not so good.
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So choose a Samsung 3.5" 160 Gb hard drives with 8 mb of cache.

NOTE: Choose one samsung 160gB disk that has a NIDEC motor.
See the thread... they are more silent than the JVC motors.

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/vie...er=asc&start=0

A couple of minutes reading the info of your samsung disk is well worth it
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I think this was my first useful info here
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Nov 2, 2004 at 9:23 PM Post #21 of 37
Suspending drives to isolate vibration? Am I the only one who thinks that's a bit over-the-top?
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If you want an absolutely silent hard drive, get one of these: http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/...ml?id=LtqMqA6m

Supposedly, it won't cause overheating with most drives (except WD, perhaps).
 
Nov 2, 2004 at 10:02 PM Post #22 of 37
Quote:

Originally Posted by Nospam
Suspending drives to isolate vibration? Am I the only one who thinks that's a bit over-the-top?
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Uh... it does have its merits - miniscule cost, and it works very well. I mean, look at that enclosure! 67$!
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Nov 3, 2004 at 12:35 AM Post #24 of 37
Quote:

Originally Posted by Nospam
Suspending drives to isolate vibration? Am I the only one who thinks that's a bit over-the-top?


I use one of those Zalman HDD coolers which isolates the drive from the case with little rubber screws. It made a vast improvement in noise (I have a 10,000rpm WD SATA drive ... not the best choice for quiet.) I think suspending the drives is a great idea.

Also, I installed a Nexus power supply (also from www.endpcnoise.com) instead of the Zalman, and it is very nice.

-d
 
Nov 3, 2004 at 1:29 AM Post #25 of 37
Quote:

Originally Posted by dsavitsk
I use one of those Zalman HDD coolers which isolates the drive from the case with little rubber screws. It made a vast improvement in noise (I have a 10,000rpm WD SATA drive ... not the best choice for quiet.) I think suspending the drives is a great idea...


Are you talking about the one that's basically a bunch of heatpipes?

Isolating the drive is definitely the way to go for reducing noise. Rubber washers work very well for this, as does the enclosure I mentioned. I just think suspending the drive is a cheezy approach.

To each their own, I guess
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Nov 3, 2004 at 6:33 AM Post #26 of 37
Nospam, hi
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http://www.silentpcreview.com/article29-page2.html

from MikeC, a expert in quieting hard drives, owner of the www.silentpcreview.com in big letters...

"A Cautionary Note: In my personal opinion, NONE of the 3.5" drives are quiet enough to simply bolt into a case normally. Having suspended all of the hard drives in my own systems for the last two years, my position is that no 3.5" drive is quiet enough without such treatment."
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from the Smart Drive 2002 site:
Smart Drive 2002 Copper Cool, Quiet Hard Drive Enclosure $67 UD Dollars + shipment

"SmartDrive Enclosure quiets your hard drive by about four decibels (even more with particularly noisy hard drives). A reduction of four decibels with the Smart Drive enclosure can translate into a hard drive whose perceivable noise is about half that of the original drive. In terms of perceivable noise reduction, the Smart Drive will have a modest quieting effect on an already quiet hard drive like the Seagate Barracuda ATA V, while it will have a more noticeable and dramatic effect with a noisier hard drive."
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Nospam, so it works reducing the noise, for a price, but does not silents it...
Did not tryed one of those Smart Drives, i would like to try
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Nov 3, 2004 at 4:52 PM Post #27 of 37
Quote:

Originally Posted by bigears
NOTE: Choose one samsung 160gB disk that has a NIDEC motor.
See the thread... they are more silent than the JVC motors.


The Samsung SATA HDDs came from from Newegg . They are from the Samsung Spinpoint P80 line and the exact model is SP1614C. I hadn't read that about the NIDEC motors being quieter than the JVC. I just checked my drives they are NIDEC. The drives have a 3 year manufacturers warranty. I can only hope I won't have to use it. Once I get the system put together, I will post some pics and/or comment on the noise levels.

Like other, I have found Silentpcreview.com to be a very useful site.

Thanks for your comments, -Z
 
Nov 3, 2004 at 6:35 PM Post #28 of 37
Wow, I hate to see all this HD bashing going on. If you have your HD unmounted to prevent vibration then you're not solving the real problem only making a temp fix.



If your HD is the noisest component in your system then you OBVIOUSLY have the wrong HD. More HD's made in the past say year and a half are for the most part silent. SCSI drives excluded. What I did when I heard my HD is I sold it and bought a new more efficient drive. I have 1 maxtor 45gig and 80 gig. Both dead silent. So if you can hear your HD, sell it and get a newer one. Older models are noisey and annoying.
 
Nov 3, 2004 at 7:05 PM Post #29 of 37
Zurg: I happen to have exactly the same computer as the one you're building. I managed to fit a XP120 by turning it 180 degrees so the heatpipes points downwards but with very little clearance to the northbridge heatsink (1-2 mm).

The Antec fan at the rear of the case is decent if you undervolt it to 5V or so, but I'd strongly recommend getting a good replacement fan.

As to suspending harddrives, don't knock it until you try it. I've got two suspended harddrives and they're utterly inaudible with the case closed. No idle or seek noise at all. I've even transported the case 1800 km, with harddrives still inside, in the back of a car (not one of my proudest moments, but still).
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Watercooling for silence is very, very hard. My best results were with my first setup which consisted of an Asetek kit which used a small and very quiet pump. Unfortunately I sold it and went overboard with my second setup which now sits in a box unused because of the noise it produced. My current aircooled setup is much more quiet than either setup.
 
Nov 3, 2004 at 7:50 PM Post #30 of 37
My 5 installed drives are composed of 2 seagate, 2 maxtor and a wd, all purchased within the last year or two sizes between 80gb and 120gb. They are all noisy as hell, sorry. I want a new case right now that will contain noise better.
 
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